Women and Books.

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 34, 8 March 1929, Page 12

Women and Books.

"yr is better to read one good book several times," said Mr. Lloyd George the other day, "than to read several good books once." But was this remark of his, says Phyllis Megroz in the "Morning Post," which obviously contains an element of truth, based on due consideration of such a_ subject, or was it uttered casually on the spur of the moment? For though it cannot be denied that to learn, mark, read and inwardly digest one good book is infinitely more profitable than to skim a dozen works of equal merit, the perusal of a single book, however careful such a perusal may be, will hardly give the persevering reader a very wide mental outlook on life. Mr. Lloyd George’s comment on the reading of books ix, however, of especial significance to women, for the epoch when they were content to sit by the hearth spinning and embroidering is definitely at an end, and they are now, in all probability, more voracious readers than men.

But, "Ars longa, vita brevis est," runs the ancient saying, and this has become doubly true in these rapidlymoving times when practically every minute is accounted for, and the day seems at a close almost before it has begun. Yet if we are to live satisfactorily we must read; we must read not only one good book, but a hundred good books which will broaden our minds and sharpen our intellects. What Shall We Read? So the problem resolves itself into the complex one of what are the books that women must read if they are to be equipped for the battle of existence? Perhaps the most characteristic attribute of woman is her love of children, and the time is past when this sane love was no more than a blind and instinctive impulse. Nowadays the modern woman iuentifies herself with her children, and devotes herself as much to the study of their mental development as to their physical wellbeing. Does it not follow, therefore, that the most essential of the books she must read are books about children, and books that are written for children? There is something incomplete about a woman who is unable to enjoy fairytales and the classics of the nursery; not only does she miss the charming simplicity of the age of innocence, but she is also unable to give her children their first appreciations of literature. For this reason, children’s stories must be put at the head of the list of books that every woman must read. As has been said, woman's era of mental idleness is at an end, and with -EEE

the throwing wide of so many different gates of activity and opportunity, there comes the need for a greater knowledge of every facet of existence. She must be conversant, not merely with the idyllic, the ima vinative, the dreamaspect of life, but she must have a fundamental understanding o. the sterner side of chings, and what she cannot gain from practical experience she can find in books. Open Pages. HEY must le her indications and her guides. The thoughts and views of those already initiated are open pages for her to scan. The intimate letters of great men and women of the past and present, the outlines of history, the conflicting opinions and philosophies of writers with a definite standpoint of their own, explorations into the realm of fact and the region. of thought-she must have some true realisation of all these if she is to fill her niche in the sphere of womanhood. Nor must she overlook the wonders of the earth or lose her appreciation of the everyday miracles of the world of nature. A primrose growing in the hedge must be more to her than the primrose was to Peter Bell, and she will look with a more farseeing eye on the wonder-world of her own garden, find "books in the running brooks, sermons in stones," if she has walked in the spirit with such great lovers of nature as Henry Williamson and Richard Jefferies.

Value of Novels. I AST on the list comes the recreative side of reading. Novels may perhaps be regarded as the friandises assorties to be enjoyed after the more solid and substantial literary fare, but who shall say that a carefully written, conscientious work of fiction is valueless? It is, on the contrary, a palatable form of presenting life and its diverse and complicated situations to the intelligence. She who runs may read, and through the unravelling of imaginary problems, the cutting of fictitious Gordian knots, may come upon some solution to her own perplexities.